Scenery Query

I keep getting the following messages when loading FSX/Steam:

"SCENERY.CFG file error. Invalid remote scenery path in scenery area.038. Click OK to continue"

And

"SCENERY.CFG file error. Local scenery dirctory (C:\Programe.Files. (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\FSX\Fly Tampa\Libr in scenery area.122 not found. Click to continue"

What action should I take to avoid this coming up each time?

Thanks

Taking the errors in sequence....

Unless you have made any BIG changes to the scenery.cfg file Area.038 will be a default FSX area. The reference to the 'Remote Scenery Path' is an indication that the entry is referencing/looking for either a temp location or, more likely the installation media.

The second error implies that a specific folder within the Fly Tampa, specifically a sub folder called Libr, is missing or corrupt.

First thing to note is that there are a number of scenery.cfg files scattered around fodlers associated with FSX, they can be found within the main FSX folder and outside of the sim. Many are there as a form of backup/reference file. The 'live' scenery.cfg is located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE - the name of the FSX folder will depend on whether or not you had a boxed version of FSX installed along side the SE version at some stage - no boxed version installed then the folder will be FSX, if installed then the folder FSX-SE, even if the boxed version has subsequently been deleted.

First you need to confirm that the scenery and/or folders are installed. The scenery for the second error message should be easy to verify but the second may be more problematic as you first need to ID what the area is pointing at.

Area.038 error - This should be relatively easy to fix but requires you to look in the scenery.cfg to ID the scenery folder. First make a backup copy of the scenery.cfg file by right clicking on it and selecting copy from the menu. Click on a clear area and select paste. This will give you a copy of the current file that can be used as a reference point and/or be restored if you mess up the editing.

Open the 'live' copy for editing using Notepad. You will see list of entries, scroll down until your find the entry [Area.038].....it will look something like this example from MY scenery.cfg:

[Area.038]

Title=0403 Base

Local=Scenery\0403

Layer=38

Active=TRUE

Required=FALSE

The entries of interest are Title= and Local= - it is this Local= entry that I suspect may be the cause of the error message as you may actually see Remote=. The Title= gives the name of the scenery area (as displayed on the FSX Scenery settings page) and Local= giver the location of the scenery folder - in this case it is referring to a default FSX location - FSX\Scenery\World\Scenery\0403.

If, as I suspect, you have a Remote= entry look in the referenced folder to make sure there are files in it and simply change the Remote= portion of the entry to Local= leaving the rest of the entry as is.

I would now save and close the scenery.cfg file, start FSX and see if this error is resolved (i.e.you get not error message associated with Area.038 - you should still get one for the Tampa area which we will deal with next).

Once FSX has loaded go to the FSX scenery settings page and deselect (untick) the entry for the Tampa scenery and then click OK to allow the scenery database to rebuild. Once the datatbase has been rebuilt select the Tamp scenery again and then click on Delete Area. Let the database rebuild again and then close FSX.

Restart FSX - it should load with no errors this time. Once loaded go to the FSX scenery settings page and re-add the Tampa scenery as if it was a new piece of scenery, let the database rebuild and then exit FSX. Restart FSX - if no errors you be good to go flyin' but if the Tampa area errors out again then that would indicate a problem with the install itself, which would be best resolved by doing a full uninstall/install - i.e. de-select in FSX, delete the entry in FSX, uninstall the scenery using either its own uninstaller if it has one or via the Windows Programs and Features tool, reboot the PC and then reinstall the scenery, reactivate in FSX.

I would also suggest that you get a copy of a freeware program called Scenery Config Editor(SCE) - see HERE to download and HERE for instruction on what it does and how to use it. Although the fool officially only supports FSX if you have on the Steam version installed it will recognise it as the default location of the scenery.cfg file is the same as a standard FSX boxed install.

A handy thing about this tool is that you can add new scenery without starting FSX and, perhaps more importantly in your case, it will automatically detect the problem areas and highlights them. It has a inbuilt text editor that will open directly at the selected entry